HP OpenVMS Systems

EDT Editor and Tab Characters?

How do I change the number of spaces per tab in VMS for the EDT editor? Can I
modify my login.com file in some way so that tabs can be set to 3 spaces,
instead of 8?
Thanks

The Answer is :

Tabs are assumed to be eight characters within the vast majority of
applications, and many components and applications and devices can
and do assume eight character tabs. While you can change this, you
will have difficulty changing it everywhere and thus your carefully
formatted file will not reproduce cleanly across all output devices.
If you wish better control over tab stops within an application (as
differentiated from tab characters), please move to an existing and
supported editor such as the default EVE editor or the DECset editor
LSEDIT, to a GPL-licensed package such as Emacs, or otherwise -- and
use the tab stops mechanism, rather than changing the tab itself.
EDT is exceedingly limited in its capabilities.
That said, EDIT/EDT/NOCOM ...
*help set tab
SET
TAB
The SET TAB (abbreviated SE TA) command enables the structured tab
feature and sets the logical tab size.
Format: SET [NO]TAB n
where n is the number of columns in a logical tab stop.